SS-Obersturmbannführer Walter Haensch Document Group

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SS-Obersturmbannführer Heinrich Walter Gerhard Haensch Document Grouping commander of Sonderkommando 4b of Einsatzgruppe C. Grouping consists of document for the Honor Sword of the SS issued to him as a SS-Sturmbanfüher, dated 30.1.1939, signed by H. Himmler, measures ca 20.5 cm x 29.5cm, folded, with two punch holes along left side. Document naming him as special representative of Reinhard Heydrich to carry out detailed investigations, dated 15.1.1940, signed Heydrich, measures ca 20.5 cmm x 29.5 cm, folded with two punch holes along left side. Document promoting him from SS-Hauptsturmfhüer to SS- Sturmbannfhüer, dated 30.1.1939, signed H. Himmler, measures ca 20.5 cm x 29.5 cm, folded with two punch holes along left side.

Document promoting him from SS-Sturmbannfüher to SS-Oberststurmbannfhüer dated 9.11.1942, signed H. Himmler, measures ca 20.5 cm x 29.5 cm, folded with two punch holes along left side. NSDAP document assigning him as a member of the Reichsfuhrung SS to the Ortgruppe Braunes Haus effective 1.10.1936. dated München, 8.2.1937, signed by a Geschaftsfhürer, measures ca 20.5 cm x 29.5 cm, folded with two punch holes along left side. Reichsführer SS Chief of the Race and Settlement Main Office document approving engagement and marriage dated 27.5.1937, singed by a SS-Sturmbannfhürer, measures ca 20.5 cm x 29.5 cm, folded with two punch holes along left side.

Heinrich Walter Gerhard Haensch (born March 3, 1904 in Hirschfelde ; died April 21, 1994 in Engelskirchen, was a leader in the murder of Jews in occupied Ukraine and was sentenced to death in the Einsatzgruppen trial in 1948 , but released in 1955 after the death penalty was commuted to prison.

The son of the doctor practicing in Hirschfelde, Dr. med. Heinrich Walter Haensch and his wife Elise Elsbeth (née Geissler) belonged to the Youth Association of the Young German Order in 1923–24 before it separated itself from the German National and National Socialist movement. Haensch studied law at the University of Leipzig. On June 1, 1931, at the age of 27, he joined the NSDAP (membership number 537,265). After completing his legal clerkship at various locations, he completed the second state examination in 1934. In February 1935 he entered the service of the city administration of Döbeln in Saxony, where he worked until July 1935. On August 1, 1935, he joined the SS (SS membership number: 272573) and went into service with the SD in the fall of 1935. Haensch received his doctorate from the University of Leipzig in 1939 with a dissertation on the transformation of the police since the "seizure of power ".

In the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), Haensch headed the ID 2 department (SS disciplinary matters). His direct superior was Bruno Eckenbach . According to Haensch's statement during his interrogation after the end of the war, Eckenbach told him by telephone in January 1942 that Haensch was to lead a special task force in the war against the Soviet Union for a limited time. This was a “probation” wanted by RSHA boss Heydrich for Haensch, who had previously only been involved in internal disciplinary processes and was supposed to familiarize himself with the conditions in the East. At the end of February 1942, Haensch set off from Berlin and officially replaced his predecessor Fritz Braune as commander of Sonderkommando 4b in Einsatzgruppe C on March 21, 1942. Task Group C followed Army Group South. As was established in the Einsatzgruppen trial, Sonderkommando 4b under the leadership of Haensch captured 50 hostages in Zhitomir on April 3, 1942, and shot half of them; At the end of April/beginning of May 1942 there were 1,038 prisoners in Gorlovka, of which the special commando gave 727 people “special treatment”. Among the 727 people killed were "461 partisans, members of destruction battalions, saboteurs, looters as well as communist activists and NKVD agents." (According to the report of Einsatzgruppe C from June 5, 1942.) After three months, Walter Haensch was replaced as command leader of Sonderkommando 4b in mid-June 1942, and his successor August Meier took up the position on July 5, 1942. From 1943 until the end of the war in 1945, Haensch was stationed in occupied Denmark, where from September 1, 1943 he was seconded to “Representative for Internal Administration at the Reich Plenipotentiary in Denmark” (Werner Best). From October 12, 1944, he headed the Aabenraa branch of the Reich Plenipotentiary. Between 1947 and 1948, Haensch was one of 24 defendants in the Einsatzgruppen trial, in which lawyer Fritz Riediger represented him, assisted by Max Krause. The judge was Michael A. Musmanno. Haensch's defense strategy was to deny any involvement in the perpetrators and his knowledge of the crimes. He stated in the trial that he only found out about the planned murder of the Jews after the end of the war, which was carried out according to orders. The Sonderkommando 4b, which he led, had demonstrably shot at least 1,224 Jews in the months before Haensch took over; Haensch didn't want to know anything about it. For the shooting of 60 prisoners in Barwenkowo, which he ordered, Haensch was shown to have only heard details of the case for 32 of the prisoners. On April 9, 1948, Haensch was found guilty on all three counts – (1) crimes against humanity, (2) war crimes, and (3) membership in a criminal organization – and was sentenced to death on April 10, 1948. He was taken to the Landsberg war crimes prison until the death sentence was confirmed. During the intensified discussion of West German rearmament after the outbreak of the Korean War in the summer of 1950, former generals and officers of the Wehrmacht called for the termination of ongoing proceedings for war crimes and the release of all imprisoned war criminals if they had acted on orders, suspension of the death penalty and a general " “End of defamation” of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS. With the Himmleroder memorandum, this demand in exchange for a “German military contribution” had a completely official character. On January 7, 1951, 3,000 people demonstrated “loudly for the pardon of the death row inmates” in Landsberg. Walter Strauss, State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, advocated for a pardon for those imprisoned in Landsberg with the commander of the US troops in Europe, General Handy, as well as with High Commissioner John McCloy, and Federal President Theodor Heuss also spoke to McCloy about the matter. On January 31, 1951, McCloy announced the decision of the “Advisory Board on Clemency for War Criminals”: Of the 15 death sentences, he commuted four to life sentences and six to sentences of between ten and twenty-five years, while five death sentences were to be carried out. The death sentence against Haensch was commuted to a prison sentence of 15 years. In 1955 Haensch was finally released after his remaining prison time was waived.